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Chapter 13 National Science Foundation Systemic Initiatives Chapter 13 National Science Foundation Systemic Initiatives: How a small amount of federal money promotes ill-designed mathematics and science programs in K-12 and undermines local control of education Michael McKeown Mathematically Correct David Klein California State University, Los Angeles Chris Patterson Education Connection of Texas Since its inception in 1950, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has played a strong, positive role in making American scientific research and technological application the best in the world. Through its funding of peer-reviewed, investigator-initiated research proposals, it has supported basic research in a wide variety of scientific disciplines, such as mathematics, biology, physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy, and psychology. American science owes much to the support it has received, and continues to receive, from NSF. This chapter deals with a program in the Education and Human Resources Division called the NSF Systemic Initiatives Program, not with NSF programs related directly to the support of basic research. We are highly critical of this particular NSF program. Not only do the Systemic Initiatives undermine local control of education, but, as our analysis in this chapter suggests, they also seem to lower academic standards for mathematics education and weaken the educational base for American science. This chapter is composed of three sections. The first section, an overview of NSF Systemic Initiatives, was written by Michael McKeown. The second section, an analysis of the development and 288 Standards Wars features of the Los Angeles Systemic Initiative, was written by David Klein. The third section, an analysis of the development and features of the Texas Statewide Systemic Initiative, was written by Chris Patterson. Problems Raised by the NSF Systemic Initiatives A private individual comes to the principal of a school and offers to pay $5 per student to help students improve in mathematics and science. Although this is a minuscule amount ($100 to $150 per classroom), it sounds appealing. But there is a catch: The donor makes it clear that he will insist on a complete revamping of the way the school teaches mathematics and science, including the choice of textbooks, the school district’s academic standards, and possibly even its graduation standards. Of course, he won’t buy the textbooks or allow public discussion of the methods of instruction he thinks are appropriate. He will let his money be used only if the school district undertakes to implement everything he has spelled out. Should the school take the money (about 0.1% or less of the true cost of running the school)? Of course not. Now substitute the federal government for a private donor, and a state education agency or an urban school district for a single school, but keep all the other conditions in place, including insistence on changes in key educational policies for a minuscule financial contribution. Should the state or school district take the money? In a hypothetical world, the answer should still be “No.” But in the real world, the answer has been “Yes” for 24 states and 22 major urban school districts (see Table 1). Each of these states and school districts accepted a NSF Systemic Initiative grant to make “fundamental, comprehensive, and coordinated changes in science, mathematics, and technology education through attendant changes in policy, resource allocation, governance, management, content and conduct.”1 NSF wants changes in all these areas in order for schools to achieve the kind of “systemic reform” it has in mind. 13. National Science Foundation Systemic Initiatives 289 Table 1. State and Urban Systemic Initiatives State Systemic Initiatives Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Kentucky Louisiana Maine Massachusetts Michigan Montana Nebraska New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina Ohio South Carolina South Dakota Texas Vermont Virginia Urban Systemic Initiatives 1994 Baltimore Chicago Cincinnati Detroit El Paso Miami New York Phoenix 1995 Cleveland Columbus Dallas Fresno Los Angeles Memphis New Orleans Philadelphia 1996 Milwaukee San Antonio San Diego St. Louis 1998 Atlanta Jacksonville The nature and scope of the policy changes that the NSF Systemic Initiatives Program is enticing state and local educational systems to adopt raise two broad questions that need far more open discussion than they have so far received. The first concerns the federal government’s unpublicized assumption of what have historically been local educational responsibilities and the way in which it is assuming them. The second concerns the value or effectiveness of the science and mathematics programs, policies, and curricular materials that this NSF program expects state and local school districts to adopt as the condition for securing its funds. In this chapter, we show how the NSF Systemic Initiatives Program enables employees of a federal agency to foreclose further state and local educational decision making on matters of curriculum and pedagogy, without broad public examination and discussion of their educational philosophy. We also describe the serious deficiencies in the instructional programs and materials this program is promoting. 290 Standards Wars Foreclosing State and Local Control of Curriculum and Instruction, and Redirecting Educational Resources School districts throughout the country, especially urban districts, are strapped for funds. Growing student populations, increases in the proportion of at risk students, increases in the services expected of schools, increasing salaries of aging teachers and administrators, and deteriorating facilities all put pressure on school budgets and on the money available for new classroom materials and continuing professional development of the teaching force. In such a situation, any money outside the usual sources of funds that may increase the available budget is highly valued. Eagerness by school administrators for additional outside money creates a great deal of leverage for those who can supply these highly coveted marginal dollars. An external funding agency seeking specific changes in a school district’s educational policies, programs, and curricular materials may be able to make the granting of its funds contingent upon the district’s meeting the agency’s conditions. Traditionally, education in the United States has been a responsibility of states and local school districts. The federal government played a relatively minor role in educational matters until Congress passed the National Defense Education Act in 1958 and other legislation in the 1960s as part of President Johnson’s War on Poverty. Even today, it makes a small financial contribution relative to the funds raised locally to support the public schools. NSF itself has made no attempt until recently to change and redirect the entire network of educational policies in a state or school district; the mathematics and science programs that it helped develop before and after Sputnik in the 1950s were made available to the schools without strings attached. The relationship between NSF and state and local school systems began to change in the late 1980s because the national government sought to bring about a series of changes in local school systems that it believed would improve mathematics and science education in ths country. At the 1989 Education Summit attended by President Bush and all 50 governors, participants made a commitment to make U.S. students first in mathematics and science by the year 2000.2 As its contribution to that goal, NSF launched its first Statewide Systemic Initiatives (SSIs) in 1991 to achieve systemic reform in a number of target states. In 1994 the first Urban Systemic Initiatives (USIs) appeared, followed by the Rural Systemic Initiatives (RSIs). Funding for the SSIs peaked in 1993, 13. National Science Foundation Systemic Initiatives 291 and the bulk of funding currently goes to the USIs. In 1999, the approximate funding levels are $21 million for the SSIs, $86 million for the USIs, and $10 million for the RSIs.3 In general, the SSIs contribute approximately $2 million per year to state education departments, while the USIs contribute $3 million per year to local districts. At first glance, a contribution of $3 million a year to an urban school district seems a major boon, but when the actual per student support is calculated, it becomes clear how small a fraction of actual costs is covered by NSF funds. For example, in San Diego, with 130,000 students, USI funding averages $23 per student, about one half of one percent or less of total costs. In the larger Los Angeles school district, per student support is less than $4. This is like a 4 cent saving on a $50 purchase. Yet, the amount seems to be large enough to seduce school districts into making substantial changes in programs and policies as the condition for receiving NSF funds. This small amount of money, in effect, enables the federal government to shape or reshape state and local educational policies and direct use of their resources even though local and state taxpayers are footing most of the bills. The use of NSF money at the margin of the budget to leverage systemwide changes in educational policies and programs at the state or local level is not an inadvertent consequence of well intentioned programs; it is NSF’s plan. Luther Williams, Assistant Director for Education and Human Resources and a microbiologist by training, made that clear in a July 1998 USI Summary Update.4 The NSF investment that promotes systemic reform will never exceed a small percentage of a given site’s overall budget. The ‘converged’ resources are not merely fiscal, but also strategic, in that they help induce a unitary…reform operation. The catalytic nature of the USI-led reform obligates systemwide policy and fiscal resources to embrace standards-based instruction and create conditions for helping assorted…expenditures to become organized and used in a single-purpose direction. Williams goes on to spell out exactly how districts have redirected other resources to meet the conditions of the USI grant: “Cleveland devoted half of its available bond referendum funding” for USI-related instructional material.
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